The Fresno Scene: A View From The Outside.

A long ass time ago (maybe two years), I became friends with Dany Sloan (yes, only one “n”). He’s a native of the East Coast. At the time of our meeting, he had moved to Fresno on a whim. He didn’t stay long. To this day, I still have no clue why he did that. Anyway, he’s a cool guy and he likes some really cool music. We hit it off because we both did a little freelance journalism. He went to a lot of local shows.

The last time I saw his was in Oakland when I was dropping him off at the airport to go back to Philly. That same weekend, we hung out and saw Q and Not U/Erase Errata at the Bottom of the Hill in San Fran. It was cool. But I’m still pissed off about something. We crashed at Ben and Eli’s (from now-disbanded Soma Holidays), and I left my favorite long-sleeved Guinness there. I got that shirt at the Guinness factory in Dublin, Ireland. It fit me so perfectly. Damn.

Before Dany flew the Fresno coop, I interviewed him about his take on the Fresno music scene. I pitched the story to Fresno Famous. I thought it’d be interesting to see what an outsider thought about the scene. He had some good things to say. To make a long story short, I got lazy and didn’t do it. But I didn’t give up hope. I asked Dany to write a short blog about his take on the scene, and he kindly accepted.


Guest blogger: Dany Sloan

[Dany Sloan is a former short-term Fresno resident who is currently acollege radio promoter at The Planetary Group in Boston and is a contributor to Prefix Magazine. He has also done time with AAM, Pitchfork, Rockpile and Rocket Fuel.]

I've always been weirded out by the West Coast. I mean, seriously. Thecities are spread out, it's always sunny and things just move so slowly outthere. Now you may wonder why I moved to Fresno for three months last year and the answer I have for you is this: who the hell knows? Did it suck? For the most part, yes, but looking back, it was a great time and I met some awesome people and got to know some really great bands.

Fresno is a sizeable city with the resources of a small town, stranded inthe no man's land between San Francisco and Los Angeles and there really is nothing to do there, but that didn't stop the local indie rock kids fromgetting a tight little scene going. It's the only thing that kept me interested during my time there. I was lucky enough to play bass in Ira for a short time, plus I developed a fairly tight relationship Fresno scene booster [Mitch on Speed].

Living in the Tower District, I saw a ton of bands during my three monthsthere. The ones that stand out were: Pinkeye, Rademacher, Bel and theDragon, Gypsy Cab and The Insects. Additionally, Bianca from Ira was one of the best songwriters I've ever come into contact with. Practices with Ira were amazing because each time we got together, Bianca would have like five new songs, all of which were great, but she just never had the self-confidence or the forum to do what she needed with them.

Being a close knit scene though, Fresno has its share of problems. It's afairly sizeable city that should do more to promote its local scene andbring in more touring acts. I remember people going apeshit over Cursivecoming to town, but seriously, Cursive is an ok band that used to be a lotbetter, and a band of their stature should be coming through Fresno muchmore often. It's situated perfectly between San Fran and LA, and is a greatmidway point to play and crash instead of doing a seven hour drive down the coast.

The local scene is way too exclusive. Small scenes typically start with anenterprising group of friends, but they need to expand outside of that. Fresno could be on the brink of having an exciting local scene akin to Omaha or Minneapolis or Portland by now, but its "friends-only" mindset was holding it back. I am not sure if that's the case now, but if there are kids who have exciting ideas, a wealth of experience and are willing to help, they need to be included. Greytank and Gardenside are good starts, but there is so much more to be done.

I am excited to find out what is going to happen to all of the excitingyoung bands in the Central Valley. Are they going to reach their potentialand put Fresno on the map or are they going collapse under the weight ofmaintaining their clique? Some food for thought: Washington D.C., our nation's capital, had a scene in disarray in the ’70s, but they rose above all of that to become a scene to be reckoned with. Dischord began to welcome exciting new people and thought outside the box.

Here's a link to Dany's blog: http://exitfare.blogspot.com/